Dracula

[This review was originally posted in October, 2006. The Colorado Ballet's 2010 production will run October 15-24th at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. See ticket information below.]

The Colorado Ballet's Dracula will run for five performances only this week. Given this short schedule, we are previewing the show with links to reviews of the previous productions.

Dracula, 2001 production

Dracula, 2002 production

Dracula, 2004 production

After the three previous productions, what is most striking about the 2006 production is the continuing power of the imagery, the artistry of the blended modern and classical elements of the choreography, and the cutting edge and percussive, yet melodic, score.

Maria Mosina as Mina Harker and John Henry Reid as Count Dracula

New artistic director Gil Boggs and stage director Nadia Thompson continue to triple cast the principal roles in a effort to showcase more than the company's principal dancers, with John Henry Reid as Dracula on opening night. Reid shines during the seduction scenes with Harker, Lucy, and Mina but exudes a little less gravity than his predecessors in his entrances and exits.

Fresh from a transcendent depiction of Giselle's madness, Maria Mosina brings great vulnerability to Mina as she frets over her husband before his journey and after his return and in her own unprotected moments with Dracula. Later, during her seduction by the fanged Transylvanian Lothario, Mosina shimmers with desire as she falls under his spell, and later, as the final curtain falls, leaves us wondering where her innoculation will lead.

Chandra Kuykendall as Lucy Westenra and John Henry Reid as Count Dracula

Koichi Kubo's look of madness and detailed obcessions as Renfield conjurs a powerful and equally bizarre parallel world to that of the vampire-king, while Chandra Kuykendall's transformation as Lucy, from flighty and flirty to aroused and sensual says wonders about Dracula's sexual power.

The Colorado Ballet's 2006 production of Michael Pink's Dracula runs through October 22nd. 303-837-8888 x2, or www.ColoradoBallet.com

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